The Board of Trustees is a diverse range of individuals, with a wealth of experience and skills that help us run the charity.
Our Trustees are normally appointed for 3 years before reappointment, up to a maximum of 9 years.
Our Board meet 4-6 times a year to discuss key strategic and operational issues. The Land Trust produces Statutory Annual Report and Accounts in line with Charity Commission requirements along with a printed summary. Our Annual General Meeting, which our Members attend, usually takes place in the third quarter of the following financial year.
The Board is supported by a Committee structure with each Committee including a Chair (appointed from the Trustees) and Trustee members who report to the Board.
The Land Trust has four Committees which assist the charity with its work.
Chair
After six years as a member of the Board of Trustees, Janet was appointed Chair in December 2023. Professor Janet Dugdale brings substantial commercial and sustainability expertise and knowledge to the Land Trust Board of Trustees. Prior to her 25-year career in universities (as a researcher and lecturer and latterly in senior executive positions) she worked for Coopers & Lybrand as a management consultant in London and Hong Kong. She is an Emeritus Professor in Leadership and Sustainability at Manchester Metropolitan University. Additionally, she holds non-executive position at the Peak District National Park Authority as a DEFRA-appointed national-level Secretary of State member where she is the climate change champion.
Other trustee positions held include the Campaign for Protection of Rural England (CPRE) Peak District and South Yorkshire, and as previous Chair of Trustees for the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (2014-19).
In addition to her BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Oxford, Janet has a MBA from the University of Durham, an MSc and a PhD (both in Environmental Management) from the University of Hong Kong
Anthony is a widely experienced property professional and Chartered Surveyor who has worked at the interface of the public and private sectors for over 25 years, setting strategy and taking responsibility for delivery. He has worked across most sectors of the market and has substantial experience of property development and major urban renewal projects.
He was Director of Urban Estates for The Crown Estate, Head of Property for Transport for London. He subsequently worked as Commercial Director in the Cabinet Office’s Government Property Agency as Commercial Director. He has a range of other business and community leadership roles.
Patrick is a Chartered Accountant, with 20 years’ experience of investment banking and mergers and acquisitions. He currently runs the property finance business of Fox Investments and was previously Investment Director of a FTSE-100 company. Patrick is also a Council Member of the National Army Museum and a Trustee of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
Appointed to the Board of Trustees in May 2016, Tom has been operating as a senior executive, providing guidance and advice to the Boards of three FTSE 100 PLCs for over 15 years, following a 16 year career, since qualification, in an international law firm.
A media trained issues manager and governance expert, Tom has been a Financial Conduct Authority approved non-executive director of Factories Mutual Insurance Limited, a subsidiary of FM Global, and Chair of its Risk Committee since 2011. He is Company Secretary to the Board of the Manchester Airport Group and a member of its Executive Committee, with line management responsibilities for its Internal Audit, Risk and Insurance and Health and Safety functions. He is also a Member of the Law Society.
Between 2002 – 2007, he was a Trustee of a UK pension fund, managing circa £900million of assets. He was also a Non-executive director of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) and its Professional Standard Financial Resources and Regulatory Risk Committees between 2009 – 2014. Tom also undertook the role of General Council and Company Secretary at United Utilities Group PLC between December 2007 – March 2011 and General Counsel and Company Secretary, Barratt Developments PLC between April 2011 – January 2016.
Louise Brooke-Smith is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Town Planner and was appointed to the board in December 2019. She has over 30 years commercial experience across the land, property and construction sectors, within the UK and overseas, inter alia, establishing a national planning consultancy. Arcadis acquired her company in 2017 when Louise became a Partner and UK Head of Development & Strategic Planning.
She stepped down from the Partnership in 2019 to take up a number of Non-Executive Directorships and international advisory positions. She had previously served as RICS Global President (2014-15)
In June 2019 Louise was awarded an OBE for services to the built environment and to diversity and inclusion – recognition for her passion for equality across the land, property and construction industries. She is a Freeman of the City of London; was named as National Construction Achiever (2015) and holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Wolverhampton, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham City.
Jon Irvine, from Homes England, joined the board of Trustees in September 2019. Jon is an experienced Chartered Surveyor who has worked for Homes England (previously the Homes and Communities Agency) since 2004 in a number of roles including management of the agency’s Commercial Joint Ventures and leading the Development and Disposals teams. Jon currently leads the Contingent Assets and Liabilities and Commercial Disposals Team dealing with the resolution of historic land and property matters alongside disposals of the agency’s non-core and commercial land.
Nick was appointed to our board of trustees in December 2019.
Nick is the Research Manager for the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield. He previously worked on the ‘Realising Just Cities’ project, helping to co-ordinate the programme of work and the design, delivery and evaluation of co-production projects across two-city regions in the North of England. He has a PHD in the natural sciences and is also a qualified Chartered Surveyor.
Deborah was appointed to the board of Trustees in December 2019.
She brings 30 years’ experience as a Senior Investment Banker primarily as a Director for Barclays Investment Bank and Merrill Lynch. She is now a Non-Executive Director and member of the Investment Committee of The Methodist Insurance Company.and a pension fund trustee for the Leprosy Mission International.
Sandra was appointed to the Board of Trustees in December 2019.
A Chartered Accountant, she was formerly Finance Director of the Canal & River Trust. Prior to that she spent eight years as Finance Director at NHBC (the National House Building Council). She is a Non-Executive director of Finsbury Growth & Income Trust plc as well as being Chair and Governer of Headington School in Oxford. She previously held senior finance positions in the commercial sector, most notably for BMW GB.
Rachel has broad experience leading transformational change in customer facing businesses. In her early career, she spent 20 years working as an international finance lawyer, including ten years growing European finance businesses as a Partner in several global law firms. For the last 15 years she has focused on non-executive roles, developing a broad knowledge of third sector governance, risk management, and funding. Rachel is a non-executive director at Thrive Homes UK (a registered provider of affordable and social housing) where she also currently chairs the Customer, Colleague and Governance Committee. She is also a Member (and former Trustee) of SSNAP (a charity supporting neonatal care at The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford) and a former Trustee of The Danes Educational Trust, Hertfordshire. Rachel owns a planting design consultancy focused on sustainable, biodiverse, spaces and she also volunteers as a heritage landscape consultant at The Chiltern Open Air Museum, Buckinghamshire.
Sarah has 28 years’ experience as an environmental operator, adviser and regulator. She is currently Chief Operating Officer for the Environment Agency. Sarah has significant experience at senior management level, and as a keen advocate of partnership working has helped deliver blue, green and grey infrastructure programmes, strategy development and transformation. She is passionate about protecting and improving the environment and is experienced in working with boards at the Environment Agency, as well as strategic level placemaking.
Tom has extensive experience within the charity sector in an executive and non-executive capacity. He works across the heritage and tourism sectors, currently as a Trustee of Leeds Castle, and of the National Museums of the Royal Navy, and within the healthcare sector as a Trustees of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine. He was previously the Senior Independent Director at NICE, and Chief Executive of Visit Britain.
Simon has recently retired from the position of Partner at Travers Smith LLP. He has over 20 years’ experience as a real estate partner and five years running the real estate department. Simon has worked on an extensive and diverse set of transactions. Highlights include advising Patron Capital on both the sale of Punch Taverns and its interest in CALA Homes, advising McCarthy & Stone on numerous strategic property transactions over many years and advising on the development of Imperial College’s White City Campus. The most recent edition of Chambers Legal directory describes him as “one of the most skilful legal negotiators in the real estate sector.
Michael spent over 20 years of his professional career at the Swiss bank, UBS, latterly as Head of the UHNW business for Northern Europe. In 2011, Michael evolved the Global Family Office team in the UK thereby extending the Wealth Management service to include Investment Banking and institutional Asset Management activities for family office clients.
He was a member of the UHNW Management Committee for the EMEA region and the UK Management Committee. Prior to UBS, Michael worked in the Tax divisions of PwC and Arthur Andersen. He is a Chartered Member of CISI. He now serves on the Executive Committee of the AIM listed broker, WH Ireland plc.
Michael is married with three children and enjoys spending any spare time he has in the garden, playing tennis, horse racing and writing.
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